Courtesy of CNN:
It took just a few minutes, simultaneously somber and festive, to put a bookend on the Confederate flag's 54-year run at the South Carolina Capitol grounds.
A crowd of hundreds erupted in cheers, and sang a farewell refrain more associated with sports arenas, as uniformed highway patrol officers lowered the flag from a pole next to a soldiers' monument shortly after 10 a.m. ET Friday.
"Hey, hey, hey, goodbye!" the voices sang.
It was a move stemming from years of deep-rooted controversy over the banner that gained steam after last month's massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston.
"Finally we can breathe, we can sigh, we can cheer," said former state Rep. Bakari Sellers, one of the onlookers. "This is why Rosa sat and Martin marched, so that we can have events like this."
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I simply never thought I would see this happen in a place like South Carolina.
As a skeptic I am not prone to believe in miracles, but this felt pretty damn close to one.
I watched the ceremony and smiled when I heard the crowd chanting the old 'USA! USA!".
ReplyDeleteThe excuse that it is part of their history, and therefore, they should be able to display it anyway is so false. The swastika is part of Germany's history, but they are properly ashamed of it. The South could learn a lesson from that.
ReplyDeleteIt's being placed in a museum...where it belongs.
DeleteThat way, like the swastika, it can always be a reminder of the ugliness that can fester if we are not vigilant.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but I still think it's an empty gesture. Remember when the racists said there was no racism because we elected a black President? Same thing.
ReplyDeleteIt's not an empty gesture to all the racist morons filling up Nikki Haley's FB page with threats and insults.
DeleteNor is it an empty gesture to this news anchor:
http://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2015/07/news-anchors-emotional-air-response
I think Haley is wrangling for a VP slot. Period. Had she wanted the flag down, had she seen it as a symbol of hate, where was she three years ago? No, she was forced into this, and she's putting on a good act, but she doesn't see it as hateful.
DeleteI'll bet you think Rosa parks sitting in the bus seat that she felt like sitting in was a n "empty gesture" too.
DeleteThe fact is that not only was Bree Newsome's act very effective in galvanizing opinion across the country, but a Southern governor signing an act stating that the confederate flag was not to be flown on statehouse property will also prove to be a very effective act.
Each small act builds on another. No one is claiming that this means racism is over. But all these small acts build on each other to make racism less and less acceptable to the national consciousness and that is very valuable.
I watched this in real time at work and told my office mate that it is not often that we get to witness history in real time.
ReplyDeleteMy ancestors fought and died in that war. We fought for the Union of course since my ancestors and I are from New England.
I know it was not easy for the good folks in South Carolina (where the shooting started) to take down that treason flag,but take it down it they did.
Today was a good day; one of the better ones in my lifetime.
Kid Rock tells Confederate flag protesters to 'kiss my a**'
ReplyDeletehttp://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/2015/07/10/kid-rock-confederate-flag/29958773/
One metro Detroit native who’s been known to sport T-shirts featuring the Confederate flag is “Motor City Madman” musician Ted Nugent.
But, he said, he wouldn’t raise the flag, or wear it, today.
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2015/06/24/ted-nugent-says-he-wouldnt-raise-or-wear-the-confederate-flag-today/
No, he'll wait until tomorrow. Another fine example of American patriotism.
DeleteI thought it was great that the traitorous/racist flag was rolled up and tied with a string before it was turned over to the museum--NOT treated the same way as the flag of the USA.
ReplyDeleteMe too! So glad you noticed this gesture as well... rolled and tied with string, like a rump roast, and not ceremoniously folded into a triangle.
DeleteI missed the part with the string. I was distressed by the ceremony and apparent respect given the flag on its way down. So glad to know about the rump roast treatment.
DeleteI'm glad I did not watch that. My Marine father was buried less than two years ago in Willamette National Cemetery in Portland Oregon. He lived in eastern Wshington, but a full burial with men in uniform and Taps played, the flag presented to my brother who served in 'Nam. A string??? Who's insulting whom?
DeleteGood riddance to a symbol of racism, bigotry, ignorance, and violence.
ReplyDeleteSouth Carolina started the Civil War.
ReplyDeleteHundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians died, from North and South, over the next four years.
Finally, General Lee surrendered to General Grant.
Now, 150 years after the end of the Confederacy, we are the UNITED States of America. No more seditious behavior by the sore losers. They fought for slavery; they lost. All men are free.
After the war, Robert E Lee told people to "fold the flag and put it away forever.
ReplyDeleteI think it wisest not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the example of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered.”
You would think folks claiming to be literate in their "heritage" would know better than to argue with the leader of the confederacy.
I did not know until some years ago at a family reunion that my great great grandmother was Mary Lee, his wife. No one talked about it.
DeleteAddendum to that, yes we did. Why we're Lutheran. Rebel Catholic, and we all giggled. Take that, Food Stamp Pete.
DeleteI don't understand why they treated the Confederate flag like the real American Flag, the national flag? can someone explain it to me?
ReplyDeleteSore losers.
Delete"cause their great-granddaddies were traitors who died fighting for slavery to continue, and golly, that flag honors them or their service to the South. I swear, they all want to fight the damn war over again..
DeleteAsk and you shall receive, Gryph! hahahaha
ReplyDeleteThanks for all you do.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRk5DwgW9Kw
You can remove the symbol, that part is easy. Changing the attitude is the hard part, and I don't have a lot of faith in that happening.
ReplyDeleteIt is proof that attitudes are changing. Bree Newsome's symbolic gesture galvanized many to speak up about the meaning of that flag.
DeleteOne of the ways to change attitude's is by challenging symbols; starting conversations. Symbols are not empty. They do have meaning.
OT but oops, the countdown clock ran out 6 hours ago on Sarah Palin's Facebook regarding who would be the winner of the female face to be on the $10 bill and there has been no response from her...her FB says that she will announce the winner on 7/10 (today!) but no word and the natives over at C4P are getting restless.
ReplyDeleteJust for hoots and giggles, I went to her FB and used 5 fake names and emails and was able to enter the contest even though the clock had run out and even though all of my entries were fake...looks like another ruse for her to try to collect emails from anyone dumb enough to use their real name and email.
Poor couch-change rubes done been foiled again. But as one person said over there "perhaps her real life has prevented her from counting the votes and getting back to us."
Yeah, right, not so much, you fools.
And they ARE. And for what?
DeleteLet them go about their business.
Delete"Professing themselves to be wise...."
It was good to hear all of the cheering from the crowd. I envy those who were there to witness it in person, history being made.
ReplyDeleteHere's a Southerner trying to explain, and probably about to fail.
ReplyDeleteMilitary folks are sent off to war by politicians. The bravery and sacrifice of troops are just as worthy of respect whether a war is seen after the fact as right or wrong. Think Viet Nam.
Few folks in the Confederate Army had slaves, or any notion of State's Rights. (I'm not talking about officers. I mean the troops.)
They just knew they were being invaded, and fought hard and surprisingly effectively, given their relative lack of food and other resources.
So they have my respect. But I don't need no stinkin Confederate flag to remind me of our hundreds of thousands of war dead.
And that flag is hurtful and hateful to many, so therefore it is to me.
We don't need it. I'm happy enough for it to go away except for in museums and history books.
And by the way, Southerners Black and White were disproportionally cannon fodder in WW1, WW2, the Korean conflict, Viet Nam, and Desert Storm.
ReplyDeleteY'all can stop throwing off on us as traitors now.
I hear you Caroline. Bunch of ill informed, historically inacurate liberals around here, but as long as it fits their agenda or general self serving bigotry... they like it.
DeleteOh the irony.
Hey what flag are we all going to take down in an empty symbolic gesture due to the black guy who just shot and killed 7 people and injured another in Jersey and Pennsylvania?
ReplyDeleteGryph you are going to do a story on this madman yes?
It wasn't an empty gesture, you stupid damn racist fool.
DeleteBut what about the black madman terrorist murderer of 7 innocents nefer, what flag are we going to take down? Where is the story? Are we not all created equal?
DeleteThat looked way too dignified. They should have just driven over the fence, flagpole and everything with a US military tank.
ReplyDeleteThere shoulda been a dustbin nearby that they throw the downed flag into, instead of folding it ceremonially
ReplyDelete